Comments on Family Values

I love the way you back up your accusations with guesses instead of phone calls or interview requests.

I guess that makes you less a reporter and more of a, ahem, "stupid fucking credulous hack."

At least I don't plaster make-up on my face like a trollop, you cunt.

So if this happened 3 and a half years ago, and there was an internal investigation that at least partly vindicated the claims, why wait so long? Not doubting the allegations, and I do think they need to be answered. But I wonder if the current election is informing this. Like: who tipped off Goldy?

Tres gay!

3 goldy says he was informed by a partisan, but that the info is independently verifiable.

nobody cared when we found out our sitting president was engaging in this kind of behavior, so don't expect people to care too much when it's the state commissioner of somethingorother.

Now this is the ECB we all know and love!

Remember - dig deep and find dirt, but remember you're supposed to be more impartial than you feel.

Keep at it!

If this happens to you, DON'T RESIGN. Go to your HR person and raise a stink, and make it clear that you intend to (a) sue and (b) contact the press. Shine a light on these cockroaches; what he did was illegal and potentially VERY expensive for the state. It is not morality but the fear of lawsuits that will prevent this from happening again and again.

Sutherland belongs in jail, and the young woman should be getting close to a million dollars in settlement damages and back pay.

Fnarf is right about the advice, but before you do that make sure you document exactly what happened, get copies at home, and remember there is a very short clock to file SH suits and it starts from the incident. If anyone witnessed it that was a friend, get them to sign a short descriptive statement that is dated as well.

And don't just stop at just one paper when talking to the press.

That said, most people never file. But if you document, it's much less likely to be used against you.

@1: Douche much? Erica clearly stated that she is busy but wanted to point this story out; if it was printed as an article in the Stranger without investigation you might have had a point. But you don't.

@6: This is really different. There was some amount of consent between Monica and Bill; not in this case.

@8: Fnarf, you're awesome. The sad fact is that there is very little proactive support for people who get harassed at work. I've never been harassed in such an overtly sexual manner as this woman, but I have experienced a lot of denigration and disrespect as a woman, especially in supervisory jobs I've held and I got it from above and below.

Often it just seems easier to quit and move on and hope the next job will have less bullshit. In this case, with her supervisor reacting with blame-the-victim bullshit, I think she probably was better off quitting. But why didn't she sue?

Another tactic I wish more women (well, everyone really) would do is immediately call bullshit on inappropriate touching, especially if it happens in public. It's hard to do, because if you do bring it up you are likely to get "oh, he's just a regular guy" or "aren't you overreacting." But there are a hell of a lot of people who don't understand the concept of personal boundaries, and they need to be called out.

Finally, if you are a dude and you see another dude inappropriately touching a woman, feel free to speak up - not in a knight-in-shining-armor way, but just as an ally. I know several women who have experienced crap like this and wished the other people around had been vocal when it happened, instead of waiting until later.

Doug Sutherland is a piece of shit.

11- actually, i wasn't referring to the consentual acts between monica and bill, but the non-consentual, alleged acts between bill and paula jones, bill and kathleen willey, et al, all of which are more or less identical to what allegedly went on here.

that's 10, not 11.

@12/13: Sorry - you're right! How could I have forgotten about Paula & Kathleen?

What? Say something at the time? Stand up for yourself? Kick a guy in the nuts?

Naaaw, let's just have more training classes, more and more training classes, and lawsuits, or dicsussions of lawsuits that almost happened. What America needs, clearly, is more process. And more training classes that the harassers just don't understand means THEM.

They do it because they can.

Bring back the fistfight! Or the duel with flintlocks. Or something. Please.